The cruise was on the P&O ship Oriana. We ate mostly in the Peninsular Restaurant, shared an evening table with pleasant people. The unhurried meals, meeting new people, is a big draw of cruising for me. One evening Virginia and I dined in the Marco Pierre White directed Ocean Grill which was an artistic experience.

On the first night during our starters the alarm went off, the tannoy said there was a fire in the engine room, and the crew all vanished. There were one or two other hiccups, a thruster failed leaving Ponta Delgada, the ship lost power during a show. There was enthusiastic entertainment, but I spent a lot of time reading. The cruise had a dancing theme to it, and I lasted half an hour learning the social waltz before Virginia took pity on me.

Internet access was poor to unusable a lot of the time. It was crowded at times - a lot of people standing for the muster drill, in the shows, and even in the cinema. Our dining table was a little cramped.

In the end we tipped using envelopes of cash rather than having it added to our bill. Heard a story of someone cutting up the note on tipping, and putting that into an envelope. One man's mother swore abusively at a poor pianist just because he didn't let her son play instead.

We left the ship carrying our own luggage and this meant we got back home three hours earlier than otherwise. Definitely worth doing.